Beard's on Tour: Melbourne and Tokyo

Hello There,

Sorry it is our first blog since we left but here it is, this is what we have been upto the last few days. We are now in Australia, got here Tuesday 24th and it is hot hot hot...

Wednesday January 18

We left Norwich today for the trip down to Heathrow Terminal 5.. We went via Victoria Coach Station and all was smooth. Tried to get a black cab from Terminal 5 to the Travelodge (4 miles down the road). They wanted a minimum fee of £35 so we told them to whistle and phoned a number we found on the internet which cost £14 alittle bit of a difference. We were checked into the hotel by 6ish and we just ate there in the evening with a few drinks..

Thursday January 19

Today we were flying from Terminal 5 to Tokyo.. Up and out of the Travelodge by 9am as we had to check in 3 hours before the flight left.. T5 is nothing special and wasn't as busy as we thought.. We boarded the flight and took off on time.. as the flight wasn't full we had a chance to spread out.. We also had our own screens and 100+ movies to choose from.. What with the free alcohol at the touch of a button it was happy days all round so the 12 hours flight wasn't too bad!!!

Friday January 20

We landed at local Tokyo time of 9.30am (we were 9 hours ahead of the UK).. We cleared customs, got our bags and then had to get a train to where we were staying.. First thing we noticed is how fecking cold it was.. way colder than when we left the UK (even had a bit of snow).. Getting the train actually was pretty straightforward. We got the Skyliner express and in 36 mins we were at Nippori where we then chagned for SHin Okubo..

Our hotel the Tokyo Plaza was 100m from the train station and even though we got there at 11.30am they let us check straight in which was great.. The hotel as functional and the room especially the bathroom but then we were in Tokyo... As we were so tired we just crashed out for a few hours (4!!!)..

In the evening we just went for a walk around the area where we were staying... it was bloody cold so we just settled for a mcdonalds for tea and a bottle of wine from the local corner shop (for medicinal purposes only).. we were pretty tired so we just crashed..

Saturday January 21

We decided to have a day out on the trains to have a look around.. There isn't really a main central part of Tokyo as it is more just a collection of neighbourhoods together.. After a bit of confusion we finally got the right train ticket which was an all day ticket (well done Lucy!!!)..

First of all we went to Tokyo station.. We had every intention of going to have a look at the Imperial Palace but basically we got lost so we settled for lunch at a little restaurant in the station.. oh yes when we say lost we mean we couldn't find our way out of the bloody train station well the right exit anyway, and the food in the Restaurant well prob best we dont talk about that either not good !!!

After lunch we went to Zoijoi Temple and the Tokyo lookout tower.. Because the weather wasn't great we didn't get such a good view from the Tower which was a shame.. We also went and had a look around Shibuya and Shinjuku where we found a Brit bar and stayed for a couple (well it would be rude not too really wouldn't it!!!)..

In the evening we just got some supplies from the shop and chilled out in the room..

Sunday January 22

Early rise for us today.. we had breakfast at the hotel cafe.. Salad for starters and then toast with egg, bacon and sausage and a piece of bannana (yep it's true!!!) well you need something to dip your egg in don't you which is exactly what Lee did (yep it's true!!)..

Jane and Lucy were going to the "KNITTING I MEAN QUILTING" festival today at the Tokyo Dome which meant that I (Lee) was left all on my own (whats the worse that could happen!!)... I went with them to the Dome and then set off doing my own thing.. I had a look around the area near the Dome, there wasn't much there so I jumped on a train to Shinjuku..

I went to the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government" offices where they had a free observatory point to get some good views of Tokyo.. As it was a much better weather day than Saturday I even got to see Mount Fuji in the distance.. I then went to Ikebukuro for some lunch and then wandered into a sleazy area completely by mistake (honest lol!!) Let's just say I was getting accosted by Japanese men on the street asking me to go into their massage parlour.. I got out of there quickly and jumped on a train to Ueno to go to the Tokyo National Museum..

It was actually very interesting, there was so much to see however that I just browsed through most of it in a couple of hours but you could easily spend the whole day there is you wanted too.

I headed back to the hotel to grab a bit of sleep.. In the evening we were all meeting up with Jane's friend Catty who is now living in Japan and Jane hadn't seen her for nearly 3 years..

We went to a local restaurant down the road and had cheap food and expensive beer (it's Tokyo!!)... afterwards we went back the hotel bar to try some Saki (Japanese speciality).. it was very nice and reminded Lee of Whisky!!! We had a bit of fun and games settling the bill, they tried to charge a table charge of 500 yen per person.. we explained that we were staying at the
hotel and after a bit of twoing and throwing they waived it...

Monday January 23

Our last day in Tokyo before we headed to Aus.. We slept in as late as we could bearing in mind we needed to get out of the hotel by 10am.. we went for breakfast at a local coffee shop and headed back to the observatory so Lucy and Jane could see it..

Afterwards we planned to go back to Ueno so Jane could go back to the museum and me and Lucy to the zoo.. Unfortunately it was all shut which was shite!!! Instead we had a bit of lunch got our bags and decided we would go to the airport early via the slow train. took twice as long but was a third of the price (everything in Tokyo was expensive).. We got to Narita 4pm, found out we couldn't check in until 5pm so went and grabbed a beer..

We though we were going to be able to get into one of the airport lounges as Jane had a card so we checked in and headed to what we though was the right place.. turns out it was the lounge prior to going through security we could get into.. rubbish who puts and airport lounge before security.. we settled for over priced beer and crap food instead..

We boarded our plane (flying with Jetstar).. We took off a little late and it was incredibly bumpy which is an understatement but other than that the flight wasn't too bad... All in all Tokyo wasn't really how we expected it to be but glad we went there for the experience..

Tuesday January 24

We landed at Cairns at 5am this morning after a 7 hour flight from Tokyo.. the temprature when we landed was 21 degrees (crikey).. We had to wait 4 hours before we could get on the flight to Melbourne.. the flight was delayed which wasn't good but we finally took off and landed in Melbourne about 2pm..

We got our bags and got the Skybus to the city and then transferred to our hotel.. We are staying at the Formula 1 Melbourne because we got a good deal.. We are staying on Elizabeth Street in the heart of all the action and so far the hotel is better than what we expected given we only paid £65 a night for it which is a steal in the centre of Melbourne..

We dumped our stuff and headed out and about to explore.. We got some sunnies and picked up tickets for Australian Open.. We are off there tomorrow.. we have tickets for the outside court during the day and then a quarter finals night session at the Rod Laver arena...

So far it's great to be back in Melbourne.. the sun was shining when we got here.. 35 degrees.. Lovely Jubbly!!!!

Wednesday January 25

We had an amazing day today at the Tennis with the ground passes we have they let us go to any of the outside courts just not the main arena we saw some fantastic tennis, the dya started alittle cold and cloudy but after a couple of hours at the tennis the sun came out and it was hot hot hot, we stayed there for the rest of the day because we had tickets for the quarter finals
which turned out to be the mens which was Ferrer against Djokovic that was a fantastic match to watch we left after that which was around 10.45pm we were really hungry so grabbed a subway on the way back to the hotel.

Thursday January 26

Back to Melbourne Park for more Tennis, saw Pat Cash & Goran Ivanesovic and we watched some of the Ladies wheelchair doubles how they more around the court and hit the ball was very interesting to watch. Mens semifinal tonight Nadal against Federer didnt get tickets for this too expenisve and sold out so we went to have dinner in one of the many food courts in melbourne stopped by the local wine store buy one get one free BONUS and watched the match in the hotel room well watching its on now as im typing...

Melbourne Pics